Amazon Offers “Storefronts” for Small Businesses

For the last handful of years, Amazon has been making moves to compete in the artisan retail space. With the launch of Amazon Handmade in 2015, a storefront specifically targeted at Etsy, Amazon began working their way into the space. They’ve recently ramped up their focus on small business, launching a Handmade gift shop and promoting startup marketplaces on their homepage in 2017. As of this week, Amazon offers sellers “Storefronts,” a new landing page promoting small- and medium-sized businesses, joining and overlapping with Handmade, Launchpad, and Exclusives landing pages.

Storefronts offers collections in a variety of product categories, including Home, Kitchen, Books, Electronics, and even seasonal choices like Halloween. There is a strong focus on personalities, with a section titled “meet the business owners,” encouraging shoppers to “support artisans” and “celebrate innovator-makers.” The retail giant is currently running a national TV campaign for Storefronts, highlighting The Little Flower Soap Co., a small company that is available on Amazon Handmade, but also highly popular on Etsy.

As Amazon diversifies its retail offerings, a wider variety of customers are choosing to use its marketplace as a one-stop shop. While we can expect some overflow traffic from shoppers looking for artisan goods, time will tell if Amazon can make Storefronts a consumer favorite over competitors like Etsy.